A 10 year break didn't stop her: Latha Raghunath's story

"It’s not easy to have your cake and eat it too," says Latha, currently Associate Technical Writer at Harman.

Latha took a break from work back in 2005 after the delivery of her second baby. During this 10 year gap, she did try to consistently look for work from home opportunities. She even explored the option of working in small companies close to home so that she could fulfill her desire to work and manage her other responsibilities. But, jobs after career break was easier said than done.

During this period, Latha remembers subscribing to “anything and everything” that came her way, with the hope of finding something that would click with her.  It was during this time that she came across the SHEROES platform. She attended the SHEROES Summit in Bangalore, two years ago and it was there that the brochures for Helen Shukla’s TWB workshops were being distributed. Latha took the brochure, churned the idea in her head for a month and then decided to reskill herself by signing up for a Technical writing course. Although an engineer by qualification, getting back to work after 10 years can put you far behind in terms of industry standards.

Understanding this, Latha spent some time reinventing her professional self via this course. She always had one clear objective, that she wanted to get back to full-time work.

After the course, she started applying to several places in the capacity of a technical writer. It’s been 8 months since she’s been with Harmon.

When asked about getting back to work and what her thoughts are, she quips, "well, after a break, its difficult to start at the same level that you’d left at. You can’t suddenly demand the same pay after a gap."

What would she tell other women on a break wanting to get back to full time work? Stay patient, explore what’s out there. Something will click but you have to reinvent, rethink and reskill for that to happen.

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